The Donovan Mitchell Saga Ends
The Utah guard is off the Cleveland, and we're left with more questions than answers.
It’s finally over.
🗣 News & Notes ✍️
🏀 Donovan Mitchell will not be playing for the New York Knicks next season.
The final trade package from the Cavs:
3 unprotected 1st round picks, in 2025, 2027 and 2029
2 unprotected 1st round pick swaps in 2026 and 2028
Lauri Markkanen, entering the second year of a four-year, $67 million contract
Colin Sexton, signed to a new four-year, $72 million contract
Ochai Agbaji, the 14th pick in the 2022 Draft
Given the players going back in the deal, the haul is at least on par with what the Jazz received from Minnesota for Rudy Gobert, and probably surpasses it in the estimation of most observers. As for how it came together, several outlets reported last night that Cleveland saw an opportunity to get back in the talks after news of the RJ Barrett extension got out on Monday. The Knicks, reportedly, did not have an opportunity to re-engage the Jazz after talks broke down on Monday.
As for what New York’s final, best offer ended up being, there was a lot of reporting that surfaced on the matter in the hours following the trade, with some of it seemingly conflicting. More on that below.
However, all reports agree that the final package included at least what I initially reported on Tuesday: RJ Barrett and two unprotected first round picks. Woj and Shams both say that Immanuel Quickley was added to the final offer as well, with Woj adding several more details that I’ll get into below, and then this final Tweet:
Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespn
ESPN story on the Cleveland Cavaliers landing three-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz: https://t.co/5KyccigjMkFar be it from me to question the pre-eminent NBA reporter in the world, but I cannot make heads or tails of this. There is no report anywhere else suggesting that the Knicks were ever willing to give up both RJ Barrett and three unprotected picks in the same deal for Mitchell (although different permutations with one or the other were reportedly offered). That they would have done so at the outset of negotiations, with Robinson and Toppin included as well, strikes me as off base. I can only say: do with it what you will.
Much more on this below.
🏀 Almost simultaneously with the Mitchell news breaking, the Knicks officially announced the RJ Barrett extension.
Even if it hadn’t been widely reported that Barrett was offered to Utah for Mitchell, this timing would still have been mildly amusing. Knicks PR, as always, is undefeated.
🏀 And in a piece of news that is as much an afterthought as the player it is about, Cam Reddish would reportedly like to be on a different team next season.
According to Marc Berman, “Reddish wants a change of scenery from New York after he was traded there in January and didn’t initially crack the rotation to build confidence.” Berman says the Lakers could be looming with Reddish looking for a larger role. Cam, who turned 23 yesterday, pushed back on Instagram, denying that he had requested a trade.
The Donovan Mitchell Saga Ends
If you had asked a dozen heavily-invested Knicks fans how they felt after the Donovan Mitchell news broke yesterday, you’d likely have gotten a wide range of emotions, including:
Excitement (about getting to watch this team with these kids do their thing)
Despair (over not getting Mitchell)
Pride (in a front office that stood their ground)
Bewilderment (over getting so close, only to be stuffed at the one-yard line)
Relief (that they didn’t overpay, and that this never-ending saga is finally over)
Anxiety (over when and how this regime will get the star they’ve been after)
Optimism (about the general direction of the franchise), or…
Anger (because, shit, man…really? After all this???)
I could go on, but you get the point.
As for me, I’m mostly just bummed that a guy who seemed like he was in our grasp, and who I was incredibly excited to see play basketball in a Knicks uniform next season, will not be doing so. Through this entire process, I’ve focused so much on the nuts and bolts of a possible trade, and whether the numbers said that Mitchell was worth it. What I never really dwelled on until now was how much fun it would have been to see him make the Garden his own. That ship has now sailed, although maybe that’s for the best.
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